What is the most useful foreign language to learn in the next 5 or 10 years?

Question

If you have the time to learn a foreign language, what would it be? What other languages do you wish you could speak and why?

My personal choice:
! English
2 Chinese
3 Spanish
4 Arabic
5 Japanese/Korean
6 French/German

Answer 1

Popular languages at present are Mandarin Chinese, Spanish or Arabic. This is for various reasons, one of th most popular reasons being that these are among the most widely spoken languages in the world, or because there is increased trade or other business with countries that have these languages as a first language. However, a lot of languages are not as versatile as you might hope. Although there are 1.3 billion Chinese speakers in China alone they don't necessarily all speak Mandarin for example.

As a native English speaker I felt quite daunted when choosing a language. I learned to speak and understand Chinese to a certain extent because I was living and working there, but now I am back in England and want to gain full proficiency in a language it's difficult. I have chosen German because I would like to visit Scandinavia and Eastern Europe in the near future, and many people there have German as a second language. I wish I could speak Chinese fluently because I would like to go back to China one day, I'd also like to be able to speak or understand French, Italian and Latin because I would like to function well in Europe and also because I am interested in studying the English language which has many words and influences from these languages.

Answer 2

Depending on where you live, I would say Spanish, Japanese, Chinese. If you wish to make a career using a foreign language than American Sign Language is your best bet, as there is a horrible shortage (which is only going to get worse) of ASL translators. These people are needed by the deaf community for everything from school to court to government dealings, to vacations, theatre, etc.

If I had the time, I would learn ASL and Spainish. I wish I spoke both of those now. ASL because my daughter is learning it and I could help her, I could also get a very good, high-paying job as a translator anywhere and any time I wanted. Spanish because I live in Utah where there are alot of Spanish speakers and we are thinking of possibly migrating to Mexico to retire.

Answer 3

Most African countries are either English or French speaking depending on their past Colonial masters. Various Arabic languages & French for the Middle East. I think there is still potential for a renewed Balkan Conflict so Croat or Serbia for that area. For Richard t.: No Russian Bombers were in British Airspace to be routed by the RAF, get your facts straight, the Russians were followed from the North by Norwegian aircraft, at no time did they actually penetrate in to any other country's airspace

Answer 4

I live in the USA. I studied Russian and Welsh in college. I love both these languages and am glad I studied them, but neither has been particularly useful. At the place where I currently work, about 30 of our employees are Latino, and many of them don't speak any English. I really wish I could speak Spanish!

Also, when I graduated with my degree in linguistics, a lot of people from the NSA, CIA, etc. came around to recruit my classmates. They were mostly interested in the people who spoke Arabic.

Answer 5

I think that English has been and is going to be the most useful foreign language for several years.. (and I'm not english), and every chinese or every arabic speaks english! however I'd like to learn chinese, and improve my japanese.. I also know Italian (mothertongue), french, german and a bit of spanish... it's so important and so nice to know languages!!!

Answer 6

Depending on what your lifestyle is and your career plans. English would rank #1, just because the UK and USA lead much of the global community. If you are in business, Russian, Japanese and Chinese. Politics (USA) Spanish. Otherwise, learn the language of countries that interest you and places that you might visit.

Answer 7

I would say Greek or French as I speak both of them. The Greek language is useful for old words and holidays. The French language would also be useful because it is very widely spoken in Canada, parts of Africa and south east Asia.

Answer 8

The foreign language being tought in UK schools is Mandarin Chinese.

I would like to be able to speak Welsh, which is the native language of my people and an official language in UK.

Answer 9

French, German and Spanish in the UK

Soanish and English if in the US

Answer 10

Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese, and German.